The Indestructible Trio
by PhantomInMyDreams
Summary: When Ron and Harry get into an argument Harry turns against those who he cares about.When all three flee to their favorite place in the castle a heartfelt talk and Ron's silly pajamas solve everything-for now. Complete! One-shot!
1. And So Seventh Year Begins

**Disclaimer: I don't own this!**

**Chapter One**

The classroom was bustling with the sounds of anxious students concocting their first potion of the seventh year. Snape had grown seemingly stricter during the summer, and it appeared that he got even more satisfaction of flustering his poor students. "Now class, I expect you to somehow mess this up, so I have given each pair a special, ready made potion. If something goes wrong, which it will, I want you to add the potion to your cauldron. Any questions?" As usual, he ignored the hands that went up, and went on with his speech. "Good, get started. You have twenty minutes."

Harry and Hermonie were working busily together, as Ron had failed to show up. Snape had made it his business to deduct ten points from Gryffindor for his absence, and ten points from Harry and Hermoine respectively for not knowing where their comrade was.

"How dare he!" Poor Hermonie was extremely upset at the idea of starting the year off with the loss of thirty whole house points. "I'll kill him when he shows up!" Of course she wouldn't, but it made her feel better to threaten the absent Ron.

Sometime during the elongated summer, Hermonie had changed dramatically. Hair that was once frizzy and uncontrollable had been sculpted into beautiful ringlets of chocolate colored curls that hung gracefully down her back. Her teeth had become whiter, and thanks to the shrinking, they were normally sized. She had matured into a woman, and had the curves to prove it. No longer as skinny as a stick, she was attracting the attention of more boys than she thought there ever were at Hogwarts. She had so far managed to get asked to the Winter Ball by seven shy fifth years and ten seventh years. She had turned all of them down. There was only one person she wanted to go to any ball with, but she would never admit to anyone who it was. It was unthinkable, and it would never happen. While she finished off the potion that lay in the boiling cauldron, the door creaked open. The dull sound of Snape's voice alerted her to who it was.

"Ah, Weasley. How nice of you to join us." Snape was being extremely sarcastic, and a few of the brave Slytherins snickered.

"Weasel, how nice of you to join us." The notorious Draco Malfoy raised his voice high above everyone's. To his immediate satisfaction, all heads turned to look at the reddening Ron. Embarrassed, Ron rushed to take his seat next to Hermoine, and a little bit behind Harry.

One head in particular turned to face Ron as he entered the room. Set across thin red lips was a scowl. Turning pointedly away from him, Harry faced the front of the classroom, pretending to be extremely interested in what the cauldron was doing. Large, black rimmed glasses helped define and seemingly enlarge this Gryffindor's intelligent blue eyes. A messy mass of black hair sat atop his head, and slowly, against his will, the scowl disappeared. It was replaced by a look of pointed interest.

Turning back around to face Ron, he hissed. "Where were you? You could make us loose even more points. We're already behind, thanks entirely to you." His already prominent British accent got thicker, as it normally did when he was angry. Lately, it had seemed he had been getting angry quite often, more than normal. Ron was always messing up, Hermonie was too brainy, and Harry…well Harry had to many faults to mention. He had changed too much. During the lonely summer her had spent at the Dursley's home, his body had grown leaner; his cheekbones had become more defined. As everyone else had already noticed, he was becoming quite handsome.

Ron did nothing short of ignoring Harry, and he turned pointedly towards Hermonie and engaged in a fascinating conversation with her. Off to the side, where Harry was sure to see, Ron had begun to draw a hideous stick picture of Harry. It depicted him on a burning broomstick, falling to his death. Ron was in the middle of the field, and everyone was clapping for Ron. For once, he was in the center of attention.

After waiting a few minutes, Harry became inpatient. "Fine ignore me." He scowled again, and turned back around, but not before he had caught a glimpse of the drawing. "You bloody…" he trailed off, not wanting to be the cause of another fight. He would let it go; he would be calm and mature. So what if his supposed "best" friend drew pictures of him falling off a burning broomstick, it was fine. He would not allow Ron's immature acts to affect him. Besides, he had Hermonie to talk to after class. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and lay his head on the desk. If he fell asleep, class would be over sooner.


	2. Mounting Anger

**Disclaimer: I don't own this! **

**Chapter Two**

"Did little Potty enjoy his nap?"

"Whaa…?" As Harry's eyes opened everything snapped into focus. The class was seconds away from being over, and the students were hurrying to get out of the dingy dungeon.

"You heard what I said. I said did little Potty enjoy his nappy?"

It was none other than Malfoy, trying his best to get a rise out of Harry. "Yeah...thanks for asking. I did." Rubbing his eyes, Harry excused himself and went to go turn in the potion that Hermonie had completed to Snape's desk. When he returned, no one was in the room. It was only him and the picture that lay on the desk, begging to be looked at.

Harry picked up the abandoned picture. Looking at it with disgust, he carried it towards the Gryffindor Common Room. He was going to have a word with Ron; he wouldn't let this ruin their friendship. Besides, he knew what Ron was upset about. He was upset that Harry was 'always' in the center of attention, and Ron was 'always' pushed into the crowd of screaming girls that surrounded Harry after a successful game of Quidditch.

After hurriedly saying the secret word to the Fat Lady, Harry stormed into the Common Room. He had his speech ready to hurl at his friend; he wanted to make him understand that he was sorry and that he didn't want them to act like this. As soon as he spotted Ron in the Common Room, his mouth went dry, and the words died on his tongue. Harry was brave enough to fight deadly creatures of all sorts, but he wasn't brave enough to confront his best friend. 'I'm pathetic.' He thought sadly, and dragged his feet towards a chair that lay next to Hermonie.

"Hey 'Monie."

"Hi Harry! I think we did well on that potion, I hope it makes up for the lost points." She offered him an optimistic smile.

Relieved to see that one of his friends wasn't angry with him, he smiled back. It was a bright and sincere smile.

"Harry!" Ginny's high voice traveled through the Gryfffindor Common Room. As she approached him, he turned his smile down a notch.

"Hello Ginny, how was class?" Patting the couch next to him, he invited her to sit down.

"It was quite confusing, thanks for asking." She rolled her eyes. "I hate having to chart the progress of the planets. We already have homework and it is only the fourth bloody day of schooling!"

Harry laughed sympathetically. He remembered when he had that class, he too had hated figuring out what was going to happen to him when this moon was aligned with that star.

"No Ron, I haven't seen your drawing." It was Hermonie's voice, and she sounded exasperated. "I'm trying to study. Ask Harry, I'm sure he knows where it is."

"Harry?"

"What Ron?"

"Have you seen my picture?"

Glancing up from Ginny, his eyes darted from Ron to Hermonie and back again. Turning back to Ron, he spoke. His voice started off softly, but then grew louder and louder as he went on. Ginny was momentarily forgotten. "Yes I have your picture, and I don't like looking at things that have me dying on them. Do you think I get all the attention? Is this what this picture means? Just because I'm a better quidditch player than you doesn't mean you can draw pictures of me burning up. Look at this, it's pathetic. Don't you think that I get tired of it sometimes? Sometimes I wish I were as normal and boring as you are. You and Hermonie have it easy, people don't recognize you, you don't have people after you that want to kill you." He shut up and sighed, knowing he had said too much. "Look, here's your picture." Taking the crumpled picture out of his pocket, he threw it at Ron. "Now go sulk in your corner." It came out bitterly, and he was immediately sorry, though he made no move to say so.

Hermonie rose from her chair, tears streaming down her rosy cheeks. "How dare you say that I'm boring! You have no idea how hard it is to stand behind you all the time. I'm never recognized for anything! All I'm known as is "Harry's friend." She glared at him, turned on her heel, and fled into the girl's dormitory.

Not wanting to wait for Ron's angry retorts, he stood up and stomped to his own dormitory. After he had conquered the many stairs, he collapsed on his bed, his fists punching at his downy pillow.


	3. The Astronomy Tower

Harry's head dropped into his arms, and he stifled an angry scream. Everything around him was falling apart, and he had no one else to talk to. His parents were dead, and so was Sirius. At the thought of his godfather's name, his eyes smarted. Tears welled up in the blue pools, and he cursed himself for crying. Sniffling as quietly as he could, he rocked back and forth on his bed. 'Stop crying. You're weak.' He heard Voldomort's cold voice in his ear, jeering at him. 'SHUT UP!' Harry was beginning to scare himself. Standing up, he ran blindly back into the common room. He heard Ginny's voice calling out to him, but he did nothing to acknowledge it.

In the middle of the room was a large rug, which depicted the Gryffindor sign. In his haste to be out of the room, Harry tripped and fell.

"Harry! Are you alright?" Ginny's troubled face was above his.

"I'm fine. Please, just leave me alone."

He stood up, brushed off Ginny, and began to sprint through the darkened halls of Hogwarts. He had one destination, one place where he could be alone to think. The Astronomy tower. When he reached it, he was out of breath and sweating madly through his robes. Peeling them off, he began to walk around, thinking out loud.

He did not notice that Hermonie was there, but as soon as he turned around, he spotted her slumped figure against the cold marble of the pillar.

"Hermonie!" He said, jumping back. "Um…hi…" He had nothing else to say, for he knew she was mad at him, and he did not want to further agitate her.

"Hello Harry. I notice you have picked up the habit of talking to yourself." Her voice was cold and distant. Gone was any trace of the warm tones he had always known her to have.

He had heard her, though he wished he hadn't.

"I'll leave." He said softly, backing out of the room. "Before I go, I just wanted to say I'm so awfully sorry for what I said tonight. I know it's my fault, and I just wanted to apologize. I hope your feelings aren't to hurt. You aren't boring at all, and I was wrong to have said that." He gave her a weak smile. "It's so difficult not talking to you. You're my best friend, and if I loose both you and Ron, I don't know what I'm going to do. I can't just go and make friends with Draco." He laughed softly, but then shut up as he realized it wasn't funny when she looked away. When she looked back up, she had tears shining in her eyes. When she blinked, they began running down her already tear-stained cheeks.

He noticed her tears and wished with all his might that he could embrace her and tell her everything would be fine. That would be a lie, and Harry didn't normally lie.

"I don't get what's happening to Ron. Nothing I do seems to work." Hermonie pouted helplessly.

"I don't understand either, Ron's not himself." He did step forward and wipe her tears away with his thumb.

"Don't cry..." Harry felt awful. "I'm sure he will gather himself together and realize that we are all best friends and that best friends don't hate eachother."

Hermonie just sniffled as an answer.

"He is completely different than what he was last year." He slouched against the wall, allowing himself to slide down until he was sitting on the floor. Putting his hair through his hands, he closed his eyes. "We all are different, but he is just…I don't even know how to explain it."

"Don't you think that he has the right to be jealous and that is the reason why he is acting out like this? He is trying to get people to notice him, and he will do it any way he can." Hermonie added with wisdom far beyond her seventeen years.

"You're right. It's like suddenly he has become this rebel, not doing his homework; he doesn't even study for his finals, which are coming up sooner than we all wish. He even dresses and talks differently." He sat down again against the cold, hard floor of the Astronomy Tower. The night sky was littered with stars, and he wished he could just disappear and become one of them.

"Do you think he is scared of being close to you because of you-know-who." After a brief pause, she added another thought in a barely audible voice. "Do you think you-know-who has taken control of him?"

Harry didn't even blink at the sound of those words. "Maybe...that is a possibility. Maybe he knows he can't take over me, so he went for Ron as revenge." He shuddered, and covered his ears for a brief moment. "There are instances of Voldormort taking over people's friends and family as a way of killing them." He scowled; just thinking of Voldormort made him want to punch something. Slowly and surely, Voldormort was taking everything that he had ever cared about. First his parents, then Sirius, and now maybe Ron. He glanced up to see how his friend would react to the mention of "his" name. It was definitely not something she wanted to hear. Harry had always been the only one of the trio that was comfortable enough to say Voldormort's name out loud.

He noticed her reaction and felt badly for bringing up the wall of fear that had once controlled their lives. "Well, no worries. I think he is out of power now. There shouldn't be any immediate threat. He would need a great deal of energy to take over Ron, and he couldn't do it unless Ron wanted him to, and that's highly unlikely."


	4. Happy Endings

**Disclaimer: I don't own this!**

**Author's note: I just wanted to get this out for everyone to read. I know it isn't very well written, but I felt like I needed to give the story a good home and is somewhere where it can rest in peace! **

"Maybe he is in love, and is just too embarrassed to say anything, so he tries to push you away by hurting your feelings. Or….he could be scared that you would take his girlfriend away from him!"

"Ron? In love? With whom?" Harry had to laugh at the thought. 'Maybe it is Hermonie...' he was thinking of what it would be like to be the best man at their wedding. Scary thought.

"What was on the picture?" Hermonie said, changing the subject to that of a safe one.

"Oh. It was just a stupid sketch of me burning on a flaming broomstick, falling inevitably to my death. Everyone was smiling, and clapping because Ron was the center of attention." He scowled at the memory, but willed himself not to get upset all over again. "It's too bad he's not that interested in art courses, he can draw me dying pretty well." He laughed awkwardly, trying to make a joke out of the situation. Once again he failed, and Hermonie gave him a stern look of disapproval.

"Did you tell him that you don't always enjoy being the center of attention?"

"That's what I tried to tell him, except it came out all wrong and made him even angrier at me. You were there. I succeeded in making you quite angry as well." He flashed Hermonie a frustrated look. "I don't know if anyone understands that every day I wish I was normal. I wish I could lead a life where girls didn't ask me for autographs, or stand there dumbfounded when I walk in a room after winning a game." He sighed heavily, but smiled to himself. "Sometimes it's not so bad..." Wiping the smile off of his face, he went back to his first thought. "I think he needs to get over his jealous tendencies."

"I feel the same way. I mean it was ok to get a little jealous when we were younger, but now it's lame. I thought he understood how hard your life is. Maybe he needs to get a girl that fancies him as more than a friend does. That would probably help bring attention to him, and away from you."

"Yes! That's a great idea." Harry jumped up from his sitting position, and groaned. "Headache." Grasping his head, he rubbed his temples. "I've been thinking to hard." Groaning again, he stood upright. "Who do you think would be suitable for Ron? What about you?" Harry asked, trying to sound innocent and enthusiastic about the idea. "I mean I do catch him staring at you often enough in class. Maybe that's the reason for him getting bad grades in Defense against the Dark arts." He gave Hermonie a mock wink. "He did seem jealous when you went to the ball with that one guy...What's his name?"

"Victor Crum." Said Hermonie simply. "And no he doesn't need a girl, that would just further complicate things." She had so far dismissed the possibility that Ron was already taken. "He couldn't fancy me! I'm his bloody best friend."

"I think he does." Harry smiled mischievously. "You two would be so cute, walking down the corridor, holding hands." He paused, thinking for the right thing to say. "I can't imagine why he wouldn't fancy you. You are the prettiest Gryffindor there ever was." He smiled at her, resisting the urge to laugh. Though he did think she was the prettiest Gryffindor, he couldn't imagine why Ron would have taken a fancy to her. As she had already plainly stated, they were best friends.

"I don't fancy her." Ron's cold voice immediately silenced both Harry and Hermonie. As he stepped out into the shadows, they saw he was clad in his pajamas. "Obviously this isn't the best place to think anymore." He sighed before glancing at Hermonie. There was some sort of tenderness in his eyes, although it quickly vanished as he saw their reactions to his pajamas.

Turning to look at one another, Harry and Hermonie burst out in strangled laughter.

"What's so bloody funny?" Asked Ron, obviously agitated, but trying not to laugh.

"You!" They were howling by now, clutching their stomach with gut wrenching laughter. "You couldn't be menacing in your pajamas even if you were you-know-who." Hermoine giggled.

Scowling, Ron joined them on the floor. "Of course I could be menacing. Watch this." He opened his mouth wide and narrowed his eyes until they were just mere slits, miniatured by his mouth and scrunched up nose. "How about that?"

"Nope!" That just caused the two to laugh even louder.

Pretty soon, all three of them were making silly faces at one another, acting nothing like the seventeen-year-olds they were. All feelings of hatred were forgotten; the indestructible trio was back in sync once again, ready to take on whatever unimaginable dangers they might face later on in the year.


End file.
